# Better Call Saul: Season IV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792 "2018-07-30T04:48:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/503 "2018-09-10T20:15:56Z")
Where do you get $80 million? Skyler said she had no idea how much it was. No one has an opinion about including the Saul office scene in the BB watch with my wife? ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/504 "2018-09-10T21:07:18Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Where do you get $80 million? Skyler said she had no idea how much it was. That’s what Walt tells the Nazis when trying to save Hank in _Ozymandias_. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/505 "2018-09-10T21:20:22Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > That’s what Walt tells the Nazis when trying to save Hank in _Ozymandias_. Right. Also, they gave Walt one of the seven barrels, which would be around $11 million. Later Walt gives the Schwartzes $9.72 million to set up a trust fund for Walt Jr. Given what he must have paid the Extractor and his other expenses, that fits with Walt having $11 million when he fled, and the total being around $80 million. And that would have been less than half of his gross income. He had to pay Lydia 30%, plus there would be Saul and Todd’s percentages, plus expenses like having the Nazis off all of Mike’s men. He had to be grossing over $20 million a month for those 8 months. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/506 "2018-09-10T21:54:54Z")
I just rewatched parts of _Hazard Pay_, where they first used the mobile lab. They grossed $1.3 million on the first cook. Their net, though, was only 40% of that, because of all their expenses, so Walt, Mike, and Jesse each got only $137,000, much to Walt’s disgust. They were doing about one cook per week, I think. Later on Walt would have been taking a bigger cut, but even the gross would have been only about $40 million in 8 months. Walt would have saved some of what he earned with Fring, but I don’t think it was anywhere near $40 million. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/507 "2018-09-10T22:04:49Z")
Based on “Crawl Space”, Walt had very little left from Fring. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/508 "2018-09-10T22:33:03Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Based on “Crawl Space”, Walt had very little left from Fring. That’s what I seemed to recall. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/509 "2018-09-11T00:17:08Z")
**New Episode Tonight S4 E6 Pinata** ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/510 "2018-09-11T03:03:24Z")
I haven’t been able to follow too closely lately, tell me again what is it that the imported Germans are actually going to do? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/511 "2018-09-11T03:16:01Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I haven’t been able to follow too closely lately, tell me again what is it that the imported Germans are actually going to do? They’ve been hired to construct Gus’s laundromat meth lab. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/512 "2018-09-11T04:03:43Z")
I don’t understand the black market burner phones. Can’t I just go to a drug store, pay cash, and have the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/513 "2018-09-11T04:46:12Z")
Kim burnt the Wexler and McGill dream to the ground tonight, and that seems to have given Jimmy a big push down the Saul road. He completely buried the huge emotional blow that her choosing to partner with another firm gave him and put on his ‘game face’ to tell her he likes the idea. Then he hired Huell and the other guy to accost and threaten the kids - which is the kind of thing Saul does a lot of and absolutely not Slippin’ Jimmy or Elder Law McGill’s style. His talk with Howard was also very much in the style of Saul, and might actually prompt Howard out of his funk. I think Howard’s heartfelt “Fuck you, Jimmy” was actually a really positive thing for Howard. Was interesting to see how Jimmy’s interest in the law started, that he wanted to be able to converse with Kim and impress his brother. I’m surprised Gus didn’t think to put any entertainment in the room where they’re going to lock these guys away for six months, though he probably wouldn’t have done as good of a job at covering the bases as Mike. There’s obviously going to be some trouble with the Germans down the road, though I suspect the ‘watch him’ guy is misdirection and it will be someone else in the crew. Gus revealed how driven he is, and while he didn’t say it I am pretty sure he did not keep the coati as a pet. I don’t feel all that interested in the Hector storyline since we know how it ends, on the cartel side I want to see what happens to Nacho. > [@UltraVires](#): > > I don’t understand the black market burner phones. Can’t I just go to a drug store, pay cash, and have the same thing? I don’t think they were in drug stores at the time, IIRC they were a new thing that were primarily in cell phone stores, but you could definitely go to a mobile phone store and have the same thing. What Jimmy’s selling is not actually ‘black market’ though - he’s legally buying a big batch of phones and reselling them to people on his own time. He’s just marketing (well) to a crowd who wants them for shady reasons in a time before they were common knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/514 "2018-09-11T06:04:01Z")
in 2003 my room mate bought his at a 7-11 50 for the phone and 40 hours on the card you renewd the card for 19.99 a month … ---
**Author:** ![soonerblue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soonerblue/32/3302_2.png) [@soonerblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soonerblue)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/515 "2018-09-11T11:58:38Z")
Yep, I can see where Jimmy and Kim are headed now, too bad she doesn’t love him as deeply as he loves her. That flashback trip to the HHM library was his first step to becoming a lawyer to impress her, changing his life for her. It broke my heart - that gut punch he got over Moscow Mules, the death of his “bigger, better” law firm dream, his sweet talking about wanting to return to criminal law too, his researching casino-sized signs for Wexler/McGill. It’s the beginning of the end. Her heading down Noble Road, him down Who Gives A Shit Road. Loved seeing Peewee, Scooter and Skippy get their due. I had bet good money it was coming. I just knew Jimmy/Saul would get even … but wow, hung upsidedown as pinatas, how deliciously devious! Who thinks this stuff up! Give those writers a raise. When Mike went to apologize to Stacey about his behavior at the group meeting, notice that she didn’t invite him in. Could she be hiding a boyfriend? And what if he’s that liar-guy? Kai is gonna die … ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/516 "2018-09-11T14:57:11Z")
> [@soonerblue](#): > > Yep, I can see where Jimmy and Kim are headed now, too bad she doesn’t love him as deeply as he loves her. That flashback trip to the HHM library was his first step to becoming a lawyer to impress her, changing his life for her. I think Kim cares about Jimmy and is fine with being with him, but isn’t going to carve “Kimmy + Jimmy 4EVAR” into a tree. She likes him and likes being with him, but I think he’s planning to grow old together and she’s just with him for now. And neither one of them is the type to sit down and talk about their feelings and plans to try to make things really work. > [@](#): > > It broke my heart - that gut punch he got over Moscow Mules, the death of his “bigger, better” law firm dream, his sweet talking about wanting to return to criminal law too, his researching casino-sized signs for Wexler/McGill. It’s the beginning of the end. Her heading down Noble Road, him down Who Gives A Shit Road. I wonder what kind of law Jimmy was actually thinking of doing at Wexler and McGill. The mention of criminal law seemed like obvious sweet talking, but I’m not really sure what he planned to do (or if he planned anything that specific). Also worth noting that he got two big punches in this episode, the bit where he found that Hummel Lady died clearly hit him hard too. > [@](#): > > Loved seeing Peewee, Scooter and Skippy get their due. I had bet good money it was coming. I just knew Jimmy/Saul would get even … but wow, hung upsidedown as pinatas, how deliciously devious! Who thinks this stuff up! Give those writers a raise. Yeah, they did a great scene there and the guys continuing to break pinatas after Jimmy tells them to stop was a great way to make it sink in. I also like that Jimmy kept his ‘dig your own grave’ mentality behind his scams, where he genuinely offered the kids a deal that would be good for them and only sprang the plan after they turned it down. But thinking of this not for the fun of a TV scene, it’s a pretty big jump from doing fast-talking scams and fake injuries to hiring a couple of guys to draw guns on, abduct, and threaten to beat three people (who might even be minors). I don’t think Jimmy is going to have any second thoughts the way that he did after his mallwalking scheme accidentally ruined Irene’s life, he’s definitely moved into the “criminal” part of criminal law now. > [@](#): > > Kai is gonna die … Like I said, my prediction is that Kai is loud but doesn’t do anything but talk, another one of the Germans will be the one who ends up being a big problem. The focus on him is misdirection IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/517 "2018-09-11T18:19:14Z")
One thing I forgot: Did anyone else find Jimmy’s exasperated “I just referred a client to you!” hilarious? He’s really selling that he feels both that a single guy with a handfull of billable hours should be a big deal for HHM and that it’s putting his reputation on the line to have refer someone to a declining enterprise, but it’s just absurd since he’s a disbarred lawyer who blew up the one client base that loved him. It’s like a mirror image of when Howard was pissed about how his Franklin and Main antics reflected on Howard, but so hilariously unfair in this case. I wonder how much of Howard’s ‘fuck you’ was fueled by the ‘you’re a terrible lawyer but a great salesman’ and how much was the absurdity of Jimmy looking down on HHM. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/518 "2018-09-11T19:19:46Z")
One of the three punks should have gotten at least a broken finger. No matter how scared you are, you can convince yourself later that it was no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/519 "2018-09-11T20:14:18Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > this is going to sound like stereotyping but if you give a Hispanic or Asian (who is known for being uncurious ) a nice job with benefits and tell them “that black door doesn’t exist and no one ever enters or exits it” they will mentally convince themselves that door isn’t there even if they pass by it 30 times a day and people walk in and out of it " or if they do notice it its “none of their business” > . . . That sounds exactly like stereotyping. How about: “If you take people who are poor enough, and desperate enough, with no legal status so they are afraid of the police, and give them a chance to feed their children . . .” > [@Pantastic](#): > > As I quoted and my comment was in response to, there was no mention of satellite images being used. I’ve requoted the statement I responded to, it since you seem to have missed it in my original post, and it doesn’t talk about satellite images, it talks about ‘any inspectors who happen by’. > . . . > Albuquerque is 250 miles from the border and the laundry is somewhere near it, I don’t think that qualifies as ‘near’. And I’d like a cite for the claim that in 2003 monthly photos were being taken of every small town 250 miles from the border and compared to look for signs of construction. > . . . > You’re arguing that a man . . . would find mixing some bags of concrete and water just too lacking in fun for him to summon the willpower to deal with? And it’s even sillier to act like mixing concrete is beyond Mike, he did it on screen in S3 E7! > . . . I’m just saying that the technology was available and in use by some municipalities. I will decline to spend hours researching the rest of your built-out scenario. It’s feasible, and something they would have had to think about. Satellite, or just overhead (usually around 5k feet) imagery was very much in use for things as mundane as spotting home additions for property tax collections. As for the concrete, the quoted amount was over 100 tons IIRC. It’s not comparable to mixing a few bags in a wheelbarrow. I don’t know how you do that without multiple truck-sized mixers. > [@Stanislaus](#): > > . . .ends up attaching himself to a fantasy about getting back to work with Kim and then showing them all, godammit. Which is the wrong motivation for the right choice. . . . > We always knew Kim and Jimmy had a limited future, but I think this episode has really started the clock ticking on that. Not by giving us a literal timeframe but by emphasising that after losing Chuck, the next major event in Jimmy’s story is losing Kim. Everything Jimmy does is about Kim. He wants her happy, and with him, in that order. If he perceives that he is making her unhappy, and can’t morph himself enough to fix,then I predict he’ll walk away. There is nothing that he CAN do, that he WON’T do to make himself her perfect match. But there may come something he CAN’T do. > [@Colibri](#): > > [Breaking Bad spoilers, obviously] > . . . > First, why would the Feds need him as a witness for anything? > . . . Agreed, Jimmy’s of no value to the feds except as the one guy they could nail in all of this. (Jesse got away, I need to picture him happy, OK? Poor little guy!) > [@soonerblue](#): > > Or cheerfully lathering up in the shower? Gazing into his snow globe. . . > [@Stephe96](#): > > They’ve been hired to construct Gus’s laundromat meth lab. Do the non-BB watchers have any real indication of what’s going in yet? For all they know it’s a tunnel they’re digging, I think. Hard to keep track of where the info came from, but I think they only know it’s a big underground project. > [@UltraVires](#): > > I don’t understand the black market burner phones. Can’t I just go to a drug store, pay cash, and have the same thing? Drug stores generally have security cameras. Plus folks who live on the cash economy prefer to “have a guy” rather than buy retail. I imagine Jimmy can sell his cheaper than the store can, while still profiting well. > [@Pantastic](#): > > Kim burnt the Wexler and McGill dream to the ground > . . . > He completely buried the huge emotional blow that her choosing to partner with another firm gave him > . . . His talk with Howard was also very much in the style of Saul, and might actually prompt Howard out of his funk. > . . . > I’m surprised Gus didn’t think to put any entertainment in the room where they’re going to lock these guys away for six months, . . . > . . . Don’t forget Hummel Grandma’s death. He really took a lot of hits. I expected him to dive right in to grieving for her, and maybe process some of the Chuck pain in tandem. But then Kim’s new job came up before he could fall, like an uppercut that lifts you off the ropes. Poor, poor Jimmy! What happens now to the Sandpiper settlement? Couldn’t both Jimmy and Howard solve a lot of problems by going ahead with it? OR horror of horrors, could it be dead in the water since the primary complainant has died? Re the entertainment, I have this creeping suspicion that at this point Gus is actually building a dungeon like the Nazi’s had. Mike is not just advocating for the builders, he’s trying to speak up for the eventual denizens. Gus has taken on a new level of cold malice that makes me shudder. The coati story chilled me to the bone. Was he saying that he tortured the poor thing to death? Either way, an incredible job by Giancarlo Esposito. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/520 "2018-09-11T20:55:49Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > What happens now to the Sandpiper settlement? Couldn’t both Jimmy and Howard solve a lot of problems by going ahead with it? OR horror of horrors, could it be dead in the water since the primary complainant has died? Sandpiper is being handled by Franklin and Main, HHM referred it to them because Jimmy was so pissed about HHM not giving him a job for bringing it in. I think HHM gets some part of the settlement since the lawsuit started as Chuck and Jimmy, but Howard/HHM isn’t in control of what happens with it. Jimmy gets no say in it either. It’s a class action lawsuit, so wouldn’t be slowed down by one member of the class dying, and IIRC Irene (mall walker) was the class representative, the Hummel lady wasn’t in a special position legally, she was just the one who’s numbers Jimmy looked at. I suspect we’re going to get a time jump in the next episode of 8-10 months, so we’ll probably see what happens with Sandpiper by the end of the season. > [@](#): > > Gus has taken on a new level of cold malice that makes me shudder. The coati story chilled me to the bone. Was he saying that he tortured the poor thing to death? Either way, an incredible job by Giancarlo Esposito. I think it’s worse than that, I don’t think he just tortured it to death in short order. I think he kept it alive to keep torturing it over some long period until it finally died, that’s what I got from the story. It’s not really a ‘new level’ for me though, it just confirms that Gus is a psychopath who started by torturing animals like so many of them do. As charming as Gus appears, I have never had the impression that he had any hesitation about killing or hurting other people, he just doesn’t find it generally effective. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/521 "2018-09-11T22:42:26Z")
Still, even money that one of the construction guys bites the dust. Oh, and regards my earlier comment about breaking one of the three punk’s fingers. Knife puller would lead the list, but random selection has a lot going for it too. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792/522 "2018-09-11T23:16:54Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > … There’s obviously going to be some trouble with the Germans down the road, though I suspect the ‘watch him’ guy is misdirection and it will be someone else in the crew… I hear what you say about misdirection being something we should expect from this writers’ room, but I’m not sure the German crew will be in enough episodes to make misdirection the way they’ll go—if the audience doesn’t get to know the individuals in the crew, having one of the other Germans being more trouble than Kai might not be something we’d be invested in or be thrilled to be surprised about. But in any case, I will bet everyone here a dollar that at least one of the Germans is going to end up embedded in the new lab’s concrete… …_ **because that would explain why a fly was so attracted to the lab** _ in BB’s “Fly” (S3Ep10). It would be just like the writers to enjoy a callback (or call forward in the story-world) like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-call-saul-season-iv/818792.md?page=27)